Class of 2014 Evansville Bosse guard JaQuan Lyle announced on Wednesday that he’ll attend the University of Louisville.

Lyle, the No. 22 player in the class of 2014 according to ESPN.com, trimmed his list to Florida, Indiana, Louisville and Tennessee earlier this month at the NBPA Top 100 Camp at the University of Virginia and said he would take official visits to all four finalists.

But Lyle opted to end the process early and offered the following comment via his Instagram account:

“I’m going to be a cardinal and attend the University of Louisville for college. Thanks to everyone who has supported me. Also thanks to all the coaches who have been recruiting me. I think it’s the best decision for me and my family.”

Indiana currently has one commitment in the class of 2014, guard James Blackmon Jr., but is targeting several top players including Dante Exum, Goodluck Okonoboh, LeRon Black, Phil Booth and Ahmed Hill.

Well that’s that. Can’t say I am surprised and not all that upset about it. I guess we can all blame Justin Albers for this one (just kidding- if that causes a guy not to pick a school, then we don’t want him anyway). Good luck to JaQuan. Louisville is a whole lot easier to get to from Evansville than Bloomington.

This one stings a bit. I know IU cooled on him a little, but made the top 4. Even though from my neck of the woods and close to Louisville he’s an Indiana kid that we didn’t get. Not as big of a let down as the whole Trey Lyles fiasco, but it’s a loss for IU for sure. He’ll do great at Louisville and I wish him well, but the candy stripes would have looked fab-o-lous on him. We better lock in Exum or one of the other 2014 studs though.

Gregory Spera

Well, we all saw this one coming. Too bad. Gone are the good ol’ days when the very best Indiana high school talent dreamed of playing for IU.

Taz

To be honest, this one is probably for the best for IU.
Lyle has a ton of talent, but lacks a LOT of maturity. Also worth noting is the fact he is driving a 2013 Mustang w/ JMAMBA5 License plates. Just how does a kid who is living with Grandma score a ride like that? Something fishy going on there that IU wants no part of.
All because a kid has talent doesn’t mean they’re RIGHT for Indiana – even if they’re from Indiana.

Rie

Alright, that is an overly bold accusation. Just leave the kid alone. He made a decision and we have to live with it. We will move on and be just as strong as ever.

Gregory Spera

Give me a break. Don’t start rationalizing this with “oh well, we really didn’t want him anyway.” Indiana has been working on this kid for three years now.

hardcore_hoosier

That’s disappointing. After seeing Jaquan at 20 or so games at Asssmbly Hall over the past couple of years I thought he would be a Hoosier. He’s a good kid with a bright future and wish him the best.

Gregory Spera

No need to start trashing the kid. Leave that to Albers.

HoosierFrom812

Best wishes to Lyle… but can you say: DANTE EXUM, come on over young fella!!

TorontoHoosierFan

Never like losing out on a recruit, but hope this opens the door for Dante Exum. In my mind, a much better player and seems like he’s more of a character guy than Lyle.

calbert40

Not a surprise, considering nearly all of us had been predicting UL for about a year. A good day for Pitino and the Cardinals. I would have liked seeing him in B’Town, but there are other strong recruits out there that, personally, I feel fit the program better than Lyle anyway. Still, we need to wish him the best and move on.

calbert40

I know that we all want to “protect the borders,” but I really feel this is slightly overrated by some. Don’t mistake me, I’m not saying we should NOT try to protect them. I think we should go for the best available recruits regardless of their home state.

I’d rather get the best players available who are going to be hardworking, high character, dedicated to the program as well as great basketball players. To me, it matters less where they live than it does if they exhibit all of those traits.

Were DJ White, AJ Guyton, CWat, Oladipo not as good of recruiting finds for the program, because they weren’t from Indiana? What about current players like Sheehey, Vonleh, Williams and Fischer?

Shawn Congo

(Unfollow) Jaquan. (Fingers Crossed) Dante or Trevon.

Andy Rafael Aguilera

What’s the story on that?

HoosierFrom812

*Starts “DAN-TE” chant*

Steve Fischer

Wait i have good news. Yogi Ferrel and Will Sheehey have been named part of the 16 Finalists for the USA Basketball Team. That experience will make them better and amke IU better known.

TJ91

Albers pretty much just said that Lyle is selfish and mostly enjoys the recruiting process because it brings him attention. And Gregory, glad you can start trashing Albers. A young man you know absolutely nothing about and, based off numerous encounters with him at IU, is an outstanding person to be around. But you should probably change your picture. It is super creepy…

Swishmac IU

Also further solidifes Crean’s ability to develop players. Love Cody’s comments today hyping up what Crean has done for his game. With Crean’s track record with Oladipo, Wade, Sheehey, etc – it reaffirms that if you arent afraid to work hard, there is no better place to develop your all-around game.

Candy Striped Kid

at least i don’t have to follow him on twitter anymore…

Candy Striped Kid

Make IU better known… ?

Steve Fischer

Yes some fans will be watching it for the first time – there are always new fans and those people will be hearing “Indiana” . Publicity is a good thing!

Gregory Spera

Hey! I resemble that remark!

Gregory Spera

It was bound to happen sooner or later, I guess. My first deleted post. And it had seven up votes!

Kelin Blab

Wow this ended without all the fanfare. I think LVille turned up the heat of J.Lyle and was about ready to move on from him. Never really thought he was coming to IU anyhow.

HoosierFrom812

No negative vibes!! James has been SOLID on us for quite some time now. No reason to believe otherwise. People often forget Pitino has a HUGE head start in building his program at UofL. This is somewhat to be expected.. but GUYS, we’re only JUST behind :). Fear not, for good things come for those who wait!

Taz

It is a FACT that the kid is sporting a ’13 Mustang w/ Personalized Plates. He lives with his Grandma – who doesn’t have the financial resources to provide such amenities. If you can’t see the issues bringing in a guy like that you’re either an apologist, uninformed – or both.

N71

I am uninformed, sorry. What are your sources? Do you live in Evansville and have seen this car firsthand? Do you know its his, do the plates say Ja$uan or something? If so, I agree, this is a red flag and should draw attention from the NCAA.

yimyames

Granny might as well stay home, games in the YUM center are snooze fests!

notfargj

he’s a kid. and it’s disappointing we lost an indiana boy. but we need to be “the bigger man” and wish him all the best. it’s easy to hide behind a screen name and critique him and his decision. but that type of behavior doesn’t reflect the majority of the IU fan base and shouldn’t be condoned. we have to trust that there are more victor and will type players out there. there are young players who already esteem the IU work ethic and player development that the college basketball community at large has witnessed over the past three-going-on-four years. the program is headed in the right direction. let’s not forget that we landed some superb talent in this years class. there are more to follow.

SCHoosier

Good luck at UL JQL..immediate playing time in a system t hat fits you well. Frankly..I’m a bit weary of reading/hearing about your intent..so glad you made a decision.Hope it all works out for you.

Taz

Plates say “JMAMBA5” (check his twitter account). Don’t live in E-ville, but have seen him in it. Kid has too many bad influences around him.

Taz

I’ve never wanted him.

Is he a great talent? Yes – but he is exactly like Albers described. Example: Lyle was chosen for the Core 6 of the Indiana Junior All Stars. In the first game between them and the Kentucky Juniors, JaQuan put on one of the worst displays of petulance I’ve ever seen. He acted like he didn’t want to be there (as did Trey Lyles). By the end of the night Coach Chitty probably wished he wasn’t.

In the final game against the Indiana Seniors at Tipton, Lyle was a no-show – he stayed at home to play in a summer league game. Never gave the All-Star coaches any advance notice. Guys like Sean Sellers or Zach McRoberts would have loved to have played in that game – but we’re denied the opportunity because of Lyle’s selfishness.

I sincerely hope JaQuan gets the coaching at UL to mature as a person. He does indeed have talent. He has a lot of baggage to go along with it.

B-TOWNdawgs

I have always thought and still obviously think that we’ve already got the best player in the mamba trio locked up- my man james blackmon! And there shouldn’t be any worries about him decommitting?! He’s been out helping iu recruit players like jaquan for years now!

IUMIKE1

I second that. The easiest way to make sure that we, ” protect the borders”, and get the cream of the crop when it comes to Indiana High School kids is to make it the, ” gotta go there “, school. The way that you do that is to win, often & on big stages, garner great publicity through the product put on the floor, success stories when it comes to making players better after getting to IU, etc etc. Now how do you do those things ? You take the best talent available that is willing to do things the IU way, regardless of location, and just win baby. I know that all sounds very much like cookie cutter talk and pretty simplistic, but IMHO it’s true. If we do that the borders won’t have to be protected cause the ones that everyone wants will not be worried about needing to cross the state line and other coaches will know that their chances of getting that player(s) that is on the other side of that state line are slim and none.

Really wished Lyle had ended up at IU, but Exum is probably a better overall talent and fit. Hope Lyle ends up fitting into UL’s type of game.

Outoftheloop

It is time to face the fact that no guard in the class of 2014 can score like James Blackmon! He will be the best scoring guard at IU since Eric. He will start on day one at IU with Yogi. Louisville is a solid pick for JaQuan, great basketball and coach, just not a premier academic institution (I sort of doubt that he ever graduates), and he will never be remembered in the Indiana basketball folk-lore (the State not just the school). Does anyone remember or follow the NBA careers of either Teague, May, etc.? I sure don’t. If Robbie Hummel ever gets to play I will pay attention. But for now Eric Gordon, Victor Oladipo, Christian Watford, Jordy if he is lucky, and Cody Zeller are the ones we follow. And despite the draft position, Cody is the Indiana Hero Extraordinaire! James and Yogi can continue the line. Perhaps with Noah, Luke, Jeremy, Stanford, Troy, Hanner, Peter, Devin, Alex, and Collin they can hang a banner. JaQuan will miss the Hoosier party!

Outoftheloop

Great news!

marcusgresham

As much as I love Coach Crean, it’s kind of silly to argue against Pitino’s ability to put players in the NBA. You’ve only named a handful of them from U of L, at least one more this year, and there were tons of them at Kentucky, too.

Michael R

Will be fun to watch Jaquan confused on the sideline trying to figure out the UL press. Maybe he should have studied a little harder instead of acting like a primadonna. As great of a talent that he is, I do not want a kid putting on the IU jersey unless he is a 365 days a year type player. Jaquan was not this type of player and clearly was worried about playing time at IU ( would not have started his first year). Wish him the best of luck, maybe Coach P promised to name a horse after him (can you imagine, a horse named in honor of you…..where do I sign).

Michael R

James Blackmon took to twitter recently laughing about some of the new player rankings released. I think it is about time the media and nation stops valuing prospects as better than they are because they haven’t committed to a program yet, they love the suspense. Also, they need to realize that though James was injured, he has not experienced any drop off in his game. I could care less about the rankings, very few (maybe no one) has a better body of work over this past year than James. Yogi is only going to accelerate James’s ability. IU will be unstoppable in 2014 thanks to Mr. Blackmon (even if he is the only one we sign).

Namnik

Ya know, your right…but it shouldn’t be. Very odd environment.

plane1972

That makes a lot of sense, Kelin. If Pitino suspected he was in the lead for JL, adding a little deadline pressure to seal the deal makes perfect sense.

cdog

I agree with everyone that he has been a strong Lousiville lean for a while and winning the NCAA didn’t hurt Louisville. Wish the kid the best of luck. I think we should be very happy we have Backmon as a combo guard. He was a leader and major contributor on the Junior all-start team when Lyle was basically a no show. We still have plenty of good recruits on tap for ’14. Some may not even be on our radar right now (remember Noah and Troy). When you are recruiting mainly top 100 guys you are going to lose more than you win. Let’s move on to the future.

cdog

Indiana has a lot of talent and you are not going to get everyone. Gone are the days when Indiana kids dreamed of playing for good ole IU. Get over it. Recruiting is much more national now then ever before. All 50 states are included in IU recruiting, just like NC, Duke, KU, Kentucky, etc. How sucessful would Kentucky be if they recruitied only Kentucky. They would be lousy. Our canvis is national and Lyle is just another recruit that we just missed on.

Dagwoods

Agree. Evansville is 50-50 Indiana/Kentucky anyway. I don’t see recruiting battles as really “battles” as kids tend to go where their heart was anyways. If it didn’t happen, it was probably not meant to be. I’m glad we know now instead of investing anymore time – more kids should commit sooner if they already know anyway.

Bobby34

Lord, one player signs somewhere else and you think the sky is falling? Look up the work hyperbole. Lyle is not a player you want in your system, thank goodness he signed somewhere else.

BC

I see what you are saying. But Kentucky only like college basketball and primarily Wildcat basketball. They do not develop a lot of instate talent. The passion for high school ball is not at the same level of Indiana. They also don’t have a pro sport, so pretty much college basketball is their past time. Think about the level of passion for all stages of basketball in Indiana. Indiana develops a lot of great talent, it is only natural to want those players to stay in state after watching the grow from a kid to a teen. For the size of the state I think they develop a good amount of players for the college and pro level.

HoosierTrav

I’m glad he got this over with. Most of just knew this was where he was going to end up. I wouldnt look too much into losing an Indiana kid. If we can keep being successful recruiting the east coast, we will win games and possibly banners. There is a formula to getting the home kids to want to play for you……. That’s winning without em. Build the pipeline to the DMV, Jersey, and Texas. That will win banners. Then Indiana kids will grow up seeing success and want to come. These crop of Indiana kids have been seeing success for a little time now and have witnessed our worst ever (Not long ago). Give it some time folks…. “Build it and they will come.”

Aceman_Mujezinovic_07

I agree. I think Exum is IU’s to lose, but there’s no need to play the same game with him because if he goes to college he’ll come to IU.

I’m going out on a limb and predicting that Crean has a small coup and lands a player like Cliff Alexander in 2014!

HoosierNation

Ummm, I definitely didn’t forget players from UK 15-20 years ago. Didn’t think it was relevant due to being 15-20 years ago and the NBA today is totally different game. I wasn’t aware any of the L’ville Pitino players proved themselves in the league.

Your point about Yogi is valid. I guess L’ville will have dual PG’s because the smaller Snider in the same class will be the true PG.

This kid got bum advice no matter how you slice it.

IU Fan

I for one am very dissappointed that Jaquan chose Louisville over Indiana. For all of you know it alls who have talked about his red car and him living with his Grandma and not really wanting to go to IU anyway let me tell you something. First of all IU was his first chose for such a long time. Second, he does not have a red car nor does he drive a red car. He has no drivers license, and has always said he did not want to drive so if you have seen him driving a red car someone must be teaching him in “their red car”. Third, you know nothing about his grandmother nor him personally because if you did you would know that he does not live with her and has not for a few years. So you all need to start getting your facts straight before you start in with the negative comments. I for one wish him the best of luck at Louisville and since he has not signed anything I still hope he changes his mind. Wherever he goes I will support him all the way!!